Great Barrier Reef dumping
By Birding-Aus, on February 2nd, 2014
Good morning all from a very wet Darwin River Are any members raising concerns about the decision to dump waste in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park? Regards Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
I meant ³waste² in the sense of ³unwanted² although I could have used ³sludge¹ as many reports have. But my understanding is that much of this ³dredge spoil² is actually sand, and therefore the latter term may be inaccurate. Incidentally one definition of the noun ³spoil² is ³waste material brought up during the course of an excavation or a dredging or mining operation² Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia On 3/2/14 12:10 PM, “Mark Stanley” < markjstanley@gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Forgot to add the link, http://www.getup.org.au/reef-fighting-fund Alan Alan’s Wildlife Tours 2 Mather Road Yungaburra 4884 Phone 07 4095 3784 Mobile 0408 953 786 http://www.alanswildlifetours.com.au/ —–Original Message—– Sent: Monday, February 3, 2014 10:15 AM Yes and donating to the legal fight to be taken up by GetUp and the Environmental Defenders Office Alan Alan’s Wildlife Tours 2 Mather Road Yungaburra 4884 Phone 07 4095 3784 Mobile 0408 953 786 http://www.alanswildlifetours.com.au/ —–Original Message—– Sent: Sunday, February 2, 2014 7:20 AM Good morning all from a very wet Darwin River Are any members raising concerns about the decision to dump waste in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park? Regards Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org —– No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG – http://www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4259 / Virus Database: 3684/7050 – Release Date: 01/31/14 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Yes and donating to the legal fight to be taken up by GetUp and the Environmental Defenders Office Alan Alan’s Wildlife Tours 2 Mather Road Yungaburra 4884 Phone 07 4095 3784 Mobile 0408 953 786 http://www.alanswildlifetours.com.au/ —–Original Message—– Sent: Sunday, February 2, 2014 7:20 AM Good morning all from a very wet Darwin River Are any members raising concerns about the decision to dump waste in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park? Regards Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org —– No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG – http://www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4259 / Virus Database: 3684/7050 – Release Date: 01/31/14 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Like a lot of environmental issues, I am left wondering where the truth lies here. Is this an appalling decision that will wreck the reef? Or does the counter argument hold, that a typical cyclone raises and redistributes x-times this amount of sediment so the reef will deal with it? One would hope (am I naive?) that the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority understand the issue and would not approve if the dredging on its own was likely to cause irreversible damage to the reef. They say: “After rigorous assessment, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has approved an application by North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation to dispose of dredge spoil at a deep water location offshore of Abbot Point, subject to strict environmental conditions. Authority Chairman, Dr Russell Reichelt, said he recognised the amount of debate and community concern that the project had generated and shared with everyone a strong desire to ensure the Reef remains a great natural wonder into the future. “This approval is in line with the agency’s view that port development along the Great Barrier Reef coastline should be limited to existing ports,” Dr Reichelt said. “As a deepwater port that has been in operation for nearly 30 years, Abbot Point is better placed than other ports along the Great Barrier Reef coastline to undertake expansion as the capital and maintenance dredging required will be significantly less than what would be required in other areas. “It’s important to note the seafloor of the approved disposal area consists of sand, silt and clay and does not contain coral reefs or seagrass beds.” General Manager for Biodiversity, Conservation and Sustainable Use, Bruce Elliot said the stringent environmental conditions imposed on the dredge disposal would help protect biodiversity, heritage and social values of the multi-use Marine Park and ensure potential impacts of this activity are avoided, mitigated or offset.” I suspect the bigger issue is the reason behind the dredging which is to export massively more coal with significant local environmental impacts (there goes Bimblebox?) and huge global effects through increased CO2 output. Denise uses the word “waste” – whereas a more accurate term is dredge spoil. Interestingly in the US, dredge spoil islands from the intra coastal ship canal are an important site for breeding colonial waterbirds. One person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure. Having visited one or two of these in the breeding season, with their collection of terms, skimmers, herons, egrets, avocets etc they are not like a pile mine tailings or rubbish dump. As most of the coast there, like here, has a lot of human pressure, these spoil islands are now vital for local bird populations. They are not proposing to make islands out of this stuff in Queensland – but perhaps they could? They will need to keep the channel clear so regular replenishment is possible. I’m sure some terns, noddies and pelicans could appreciate it. Mark Stanley Message: 2 Message-ID:goodfellow@bigpond.com.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”US-ASCII” Good morning all from a very wet Darwin River Are any members raising concerns about the decision to dump waste in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park? Regards Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org